Positives:This is your highest score for an image submitted in a DPC challenge and you should be pleased with it. You captured a nice floral and its technicals are generally good.

Technicals:This is "silky smooth" because the noise reduction you applied contributed to it and you did not overdo it. Sharpness is fine and not overdone. It is easy to oversharpen images. I know, I do it all the time. LOL!!!

The image is on the low contrast side. It looks a bit flat. Composition is OK but not spectacular. Overall lighting is decent. It does not have overexposed or underexposed areas like we often see in much higher scoring images.

The Challenge:It meets the challenge though some voters will fault any and all flora images regardless of quality. That is a thought that should be kept in the back of your mind every time when deciding what to photograph should you want a higher score. Not saying not to do it, just saying to keep it in mind. Well done floral images will generally score well despite the prejudice as we see all the time in challenges.

You placed 59/140 so was viewed by DPCers as slightly above average for the challenge. That is not a bad thing.

Suggestions:Looking at it now I can see a couple other things you might consider for improvement.

If you apply a simple "Auto Contrast" adjustment to this image in post processing it will improve brightness and contrast immediately and give this image more impact.

More advanced concepts such as vignetting and dodge and burn could be used to add more viewer interest to the composition and direct viewers to the areas of the composition where you want them to pay attention.

You might consider a tighter crop on the left, top, and bottom to remove more of the stem of the flower. It would give the flower more image real estate and remove some of the less interesting detail.